1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a video distribution apparatus and a video distribution method. More specifically, one disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to a technique enable a user to easily seek a significant scene considering user's preference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video analysis techniques and audio recognition techniques have been recently developed to process video data including plenty of metadata pieces. Information allocated to video data as metadata includes, for example, information identifying a person appearing in each scene or information indicating a scene where child's laughing voice may be heard. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-292402 or in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-208651 discusses a method for utilizing metadata to enable users to quickly find a scene to watch or to watch only scenes according to user's preference.
Further, communication networks have been recently developed to realize a new viewing style that enables a plurality of users to enjoy streaming reproduction of a video stored in a video distribution apparatus on each user's display apparatus via a network. Thus, a video distribution system is required to satisfy requirements for providing a user interface that enables each user to easily seek a significant scene considering user's preference.
Further, it will be convenient if a frame clipped from a video may be referred to when a user seeks a significant scene from the video. More specifically, representative frames are displayed on a video display screen while a user moves a slider. A method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-287875 includes acquiring video data of a plurality of video frames that are present in a predetermined advance reading period while performing streaming reproduction.
However, an apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-292402 is premised that a user watches only the locally stored video contents. Therefore, the apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-292402 is not usable for a plurality of users to watch videos stored in the video distribution apparatus via a network. As a result, it was conventionally unfeasible to provide a user interface that enables each of a plurality of users to reproduce video contents according to user's preference via a network.
Further, an apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-208651 is usable in a case where video/audio data and metadata are acquired via broadcasting or communications. However, the function of generating a highlight segment using the metadata and user's favorite data is present in a content viewing apparatus. Accordingly, the highlight segment may not be completely extracted unless the content viewing apparatus receives all pieces of the video/audio data and metadata. Further, the processing load of the content viewing apparatus largely increases because the content viewing apparatus is required to extract highlight segments.
Further, the apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-287875 transmits frame data extracted and generated simply from video contents during a predetermined time interval, without considering the importance of each scene. Therefore, a scene according to preference of each user may not be quickly sought.